Welcome To My Kansas! This site will be about Kansas, its people and historical events. Like its sister web site (Civil War Days & Those Surnames), which deals with Surnames, so will this site. My field is military (Civil War) and surnames and what better place to hunt for this information then in my own state of Kansas.

Monday, November 23, 2009

Kansas Shorts from the national newspapers.

Here are some interesting shorts about Kansas taken from Kansas newspapers and other national papers. These stories are grouped into each month of the year, but they will follow no given year. By reading some of this shorts you may find one you would like to research more, I know I have.----------------------------Dodge City, Kansas.Front street 1874.

1889- Kansas- the towns of Cimarron and Ingalls fight over which will be the seat of Gray County. Ingalls hires Dodge City gunfighters, including Jim Masterson and Bill Tilghman to raid the Cimarron courthouse for the county records. Residents of Cimarron open fire and some of Ingalls's hired gunfighters escape, but 4, including Jim Masterson are left stranded on the second floor of the courthouse. Bat Masterson sends a telegram asking Cimarron to free his brother or else he will “hire a train and come in with enough men to blow Cimarron off the face of Kansas.” The four are freed, and later tried and acquitted for the death of J.W. English.

1869- Texas outlaw Cullen Baker was killed by a schoolteacher named Orr who had married Bakers ex-wife. Baker had once hung Orr but cut him down too soon in order to save his rope. Orr, with three others, followed Baker and an accomplice to a hideout in southeastern Arkansas, coming upon the two men just as they were squatting next to a fire, having lunch. Orr and the others did not call out to the outlaws to surrender, knowing what their answer would be. The teacher and his companions rode down on Baker and his henchman with their six-guns blazing, shooting both men dead on the spot. Orr found that his old adversary was a walking arsenal. Strapped to his side was a double-barreled shotgun. Baker was also wearing four six -guns, three derringers, and six knives. Also found on Baker's corpse was a carefully kept packet of newspaper clippings that described him as "the Arkansas brigand," and the most feared gunman in the Lone Star State who had spread "a reign of terror in Texas."

1876-Wichita, Kansas- the Customs House Saloon is cleared when Wyatt Earp's pistol slips out of its holster and discharges when hitting the floor. The bullet passes through the fabric of his coat before going through the ceiling.

1868- Leavenworth, Kansas- The Leavenworth Daily Conservative reports that Bill Cody and his horse Brigham started on a hunt Saturday afternoon and came in Tuesday. Cody brought in 19 buffalo with 4,000 pounds of meat that sold at .07 a pound, netting him $100 a day for his effort.

1886- Kansas- The Dodge City Globe report: “The water holes are frozen over, the grass is snowed under and the weather is cold, with every prospect of more snow…A gentleman from a ranch south of here reports seeing cattle … that were still standing on their feet, frozen to death.

1886- Wichita, Kansas- Indians appear on doorsteps of many homes, begging to be let in from the cold.

1882- Caldwell, Kansas- Marshal George Brown is murdered. He is replaced with Ben “Bat” Carr and his assistant Henry Brown.

1907 -Kansas- Charles Curtis, part Kaw Indian, takes office as a Republican senator from Kansas. Born near Topeka, Kansas, in 1860, Curtis spent three years on a Kaw Indian reservation during his youth, before moving back to Topeka. Claiming to be one-eighth Indian, Curtis was the first congressman of Native-American ancestry. In Congress, he championed Native-American rights and introduced the Curtis Act of 1898 in defense of self-government on Indian reservations. In 1915, after a two-year break, he returned to the Senate where he held his seat until 1929, at which point he resigned to become vice president of the United States. The year before, Curtis had made an unsuccessful bid for the Republican presidential nomination and resolved instead to become Herbert Hoover's running mate.

1870- A thousand mile journey on the Kansas Pacific costs $45.

1878- Kansas- Dave Rudabaugh and his gang were arrested by posse led by Sheriff Bat Masterson of Ford County, for robbing a pay train near Kinsley the day before, netting $10,000. Rudabaugh and his gang had been trying to stay one jump ahead of Wyatt Earp who had been hired by the railroad to track him down for robbing a pay train in November of 1877.

February.

1886- Kansas- some people resort to burning corn due to coal shortage.

1886- Topeka, Kansas- William F. Cody and Buck Taylor appear in the Prairie Wolf at the Grand Opera Hotel.

1869- Tennessee- 15 year old Nat Love heads west after giving his mother $50 of $100 that he won in a raffle. Outside of present day Dodge City, Kansas, he hitched on with the Duval cattle outfit from Texas, after riding a mean bronco named “Good Eye”.

1861- Kansas- the Treaty of Fort Wise is signed. Cheyenne and Arapaho gave up much of present Colorado between the North Platte and Arkansas Rivers. The tribes relocate to a reservation between the Arkansas River and Sand Creek.

1862- Aubrey, Kansas - William Quantrill along with 40 men raided the village.

1885- Kansas- to stop an epidemic of hoof-and-mouth disease the state legislature makes it illegal to drive Texas cattle between March 1 and December 1.

1893- Former lawman & later member of the Dalton Gang, Emmett Dalton entered prison on this sate after he was wounded at the failed double bank robbery in Coffeeville Kansas. He was pardoned in 1907 and moved to California where he wrote for the movie industry in Hollywood.

1878- Abilene, Kansas- fire destroys part of the cow town.

1886- Dodge City, Kansas- saloons are closed by order of Bat Masterson.

1858- Monticello Township, Johnson County, Kansas- James Butler Hickok, age 20, is elected village constable.

1886- Abilene, Kansas- the town gets electric lights. A local paper reported "time will tell whether it will be to the interest of the city to use the same to any extent."

1855- Manhattan Kansas founded as New Boston Kansas.

1879- Fort Scott, Kansas- miners pull Bill Howard, convicted of rape, from his cell, hang him from a lamp post, and set him on fire.

1876- Wichita, Kansas- police officer Wyatt Earp gets into a fistfight with William Smith, a candidate for city marshal, and is fined $30 and released from the force.

1879- Dodge City, Kansas- in the Long Branch Saloon Frank Loving, onetime cowhand and faro dealer, shoots it out with a hide-hunter and gunman named Levi Richardson. Levi fired off 5 rounds, before Frank got one off, and missed all 5 times. When the smoke cleared Frank began squeezing the trigger of his gun with cool deliberation hitting Levi 3 times. A coroner's jury ruled a self defense verdict. Frank was shot dead about a year later in Trinidad, Colorado.

1886- Newton, Kansas- an “anti-dude” club is formed its members set fines for various infractions: $5 for carrying a cane, $10 for wearing kid gloves and a plug hat, and $20 for parting one's hair down the middle.

1867- Fort Larned, Kansas- Major General Winfield Scott Hancock arrives for a conference local Indian chiefs. He is currently organizing a 1,400-soldier campaign against the southern plains tribes. Hancock's chief field commander is Lieutenant Colonel George A. Custer.

1878- Dodge City, Kansas- Marshal Edward Masterson was killed by a drunken cowhand named Jack Wagner as he went to investigate a disturbance at the Lady Gay Dance Hall. His brother Bat was only a little distance away and shot both Jack Wagner and his partner Alf Walker. Wagner and Walker staggered into the Peacock Saloon. Wagoner died the next day while Alf took a month to die.

1883-Hunnewell, Kansas- Cash Hollister moved to Caldwell, Kansas, from Cleveland in 1877. Two years later, he was elected mayor after the sudden death of the incumbent. He exhibited a tempestuous temperament, frequently got involved in fights. In 1880, Hollister chose not to run for reelection, but three years later was appointed a deputy U.S. marshal. On Apr. 11, 1883, he became embroiled in a shootout in Hunnewell, while trying to arrest a family of horse thieves. One brother was killed and another wounded before the remaining Ross family members surrendered.

1881- Dodge City, Kansas- the “Battle of the Plaza” takes place as Bat Masterson returns from Tombstone to help his brother Jim in business dealings. As Bat steps off the train he sees two men who are believed to be causing problems for Jim and begins to fire. Al Updegraffe is killed. After paying an $8 fine Bat and Jim leave for Colorado.

1867- Fort Dodge, Kansas- the 7th Cavalry reports six Indians killed in a fight near the fort.

1876- Wichita, Kansas- the city council votes 2 to 6 against reinstating Wyatt Earp to the police force.

1875- Wichita, Kansas- Wyatt Earp hired on with to the Wichita Police Force at $60-a-month.

1874- Kansas City- after being engaged for nine years, Jesse James & Miss Zee Mimms were married at the house of a friend.

1875- Kansas- in northwestern Kansas Little Bull and his seventy-five Cheyennes, on their way back to home in the Black Hills, are nearly wiped out by buffalo hunters and a cavalry company out of Fort Wallace.

1883- Dodge City, Kansas- Luke Short, a co-owner of the Long Branch Saloon, is angered when three female entertainers are arrested. Luke fires at L.C. Hartman who falls to the ground unhurt. Luke believing he has killed Hartman leaves the scene.

1884- at Medicine Lodge, Kansas- Henry Newton Brown died while attempting to rob the bank (he was Marshal of Caldwell KS at the time). The robbery was a failure and many citizens died. He and others were captured and that night as they were being drug out of their cells he died from a shotgun blast while trying to escape (the others were hanged). He was a cowboy, buffalo hunter and involved in the Lincoln County War.

May.

1873- Labette County, Kansas- the remains of Dr. William York and other murder victims are found on the Bender family farm.

1827-Fort Leavenworth, first known as Cantonment Leavenworth, was established by Col. Henry Leavenworth on the Missouri River's right bank of Salt Creek as an army post to protect the western frontier and travelers on the Santa Fe Trail. 1829 Sublette's pack-train, en route West by way of Independence, Missouri for the first time traveled out the Santa Fe Trail some distance before turning northwest toward the Kansas river. This became the established Oregon-California trail route.

1868- Fort Leavenworth, Kansas- the horse Comanche arrives from St. Louis and receives a “US” brand. Shortly later the horse is bought from the government by Captain Myles Keogh for $90. Comanche is later the only survivor at Custer's Massacre.

1885- Ashland, Kansas- a gunfight erupts in the Junction Saloon during a card game, pitting “Mysterious Dave” Mather, and his brother and bartender Josiah, against David Barnes. David Barnes is killed and two bystanders are wounded. The Mather brothers are arrested and leave town after posting a $3,000 bond.

1853-Fort Riley, Kansas Territory- the fort was established by Captain Charles S. Lovell, 6th U.S. Infantry, on a site recommended by Colonel Thomas T. Flauntleroy, 1st U. S. Dragoons.

1858- Pleasanton , Kansas- the Marais Des Cygnes River at in Linn County is the site of a confrontation between pro slavery ("Border Ruffians") and abolition (free-state) forces. The five victims of the massacre were immortalized as martyrs in the cause for freedom. This massacre was the last significant display of mob rule in Kansas.

1869- Jewell County, Kansas- six settlers are killed by Indians.

1888- Topeka, Kansas- recently discharged doorman of the U.S. House of Representatives and the man who shot John Wilkes Booth, Boston Corbett, escapes from the insane asylum where he has resided for the last 15 months.

1893- Kansas- Bill Doolin and his gang rob train, near Cimarron.

1886- Forts Larned and Dodge, Kansas- their military cemeteries are abandoned.

1842-Fort Scott (in present day Kansas), named in honor of General Winfield Scott, was established at Marmaton crossing of the Fort Leavenworth-Fort Gibson military road.

1893- Cimarron, Kansas- Doolin and three of his gang robbed a train. As they were fleeing, a large posse led by Chris Madsen cut off the band and a wild gunfight ensued in which Doolin was shot in the right foot. The outlaws escaped under the cover of darkness.

1900- Kiowa, Kansas- Carry Nation went on her first saloon wrecking rampage.

June.

1871- Abilene, Kansas- a group of cowboys, including John Wesley Hardin arrives in town. Ben Thompson tries to get Hardin to gun down the town's marshal, Wild Bill Hickok.

1873-Delano, Kansas- gunman Edward T. Beard, aka Red Beard, opened a notorious dance hall in nearby Delano, a hangout for soldiers stationed nearby. On this date, a drunken soldier argued with a prostitute named Emma Stanley over her price for the night, and fired a bullet into her leg. Beard leaped over the bar and ran toward the group of soldiers, blindly firing his six-gun. He shot one soldier in the throat and another in the leg, neither being the culprit who escaped out a back door and deserted the army that night. Two nights later, thirty troopers sought revenge by invading Beard's dance hall and shooting up the place, wounding a gambler named Charles Leshhart, shooting Emma Stanley in the other leg, and wounding another dance hall girl. Before retreating, the soldiers torched the dance hall and then watched from the street, cheering as it burned to the ground.

1867- Kansas- the first recorded Indian attack at Henshaw Station, when the Indians killed four men and stampeded the horses. At the time the station was guarded by only ten soldiers and two stock traders, so pursuit of the Indians was out of the question. By the time a force arrived from Fort Wallace, the Indians had dispersed.

1863- Highland, Kansas- the citizens hanged two outlaws- James Melvine and William Cannon.

1867- Fort Hayes, Kansas- due to torrential rains causing Big Creek to overflow its banks, flooding the fort, the commander, Lieutenant Colonel George Custer, moved the residents, including his wife, to higher ground before leaving on a mission. Despite moving seven men still drowned within earshot of the residents.

1878- Dodge City, Kansas- (could be 1879) the Dodge City Times runs advertisement: “DENTISTRY. J.H. Holliday, Dentist, very respectfully offers his professional services to the citizens of Dodge City and surrounding county for the summer. Office at room No. 24, Dodge House. Where satisfaction is not given money weill be refunded.”

1872- Newton, Kansas- marshal William Brooks is wounded three times while trying to arrest Texas cowboys.

1911- Leavenworth, Kansas- Carry Nation died at age 64 on the eve of national prohibition.

1867- Big Timbers, Kansas- Indians kill member of a detachment of the 7th Cavalry escorting the mail.

1880- Caldwell, Kansas- J. Frank Hunt was the deputy marshal of this frontier boomtown. On this date, George Flatt, a drunken former lawman was shot to death as he neared a Caldwell restaurant. A man identified as Hunt was seen fleeing the murder scene. Flatt's death was avenged on Oct. 11, 1880, when an unidentified gunman fatally wounded Hunt as he sat near a window at the Red Light saloon and dance hall.

1867- Kansas- Lieutenant Colonel George A. Custer reports a fight between Indians and five companies of the 7th Cavalry on the north fork of the Republican River.

1857- Kansas- at Solomon's Fork on the Kansas River Lieutenant J.E.B. Stuart is wounded in a fight with Cheyenne Indians.

July.

1863- Cabin Creek, Kansas- a victorious Colonel Williams leads 800 members of the 1st Kansas Colored along with 500 Indians against a force of Texas Confederates lead by Cherokee chief and Confederate general Stand Watie.

1871- Kansas- Mexican-born Juan Bideno worked as a cowboy but was known as a fast-gun and hired out for killings, one report has it. In June 1871, Bideno signed on to a cattle drive from Texas to the railhead at Abilene, Kansas. The trail boss was 22-year-old Billy Cohron, who noticed Bideno's slack work and called him on it several times, leading to hard words between the pair. As the herd crossed the Cottonwood River on this date, Cohron and Bideno again fell to arguing and then went for their guns. Bideno shot the youthful trail boss dead and fled, riding south toward Texas. Bideno was later killed by John Wesley Hardin.

1879- Caldwell, Kansas- George Flatt was a lawman in Caldwell and also operated an elegant saloon with William Horseman. On this date Flatt was involved in a shootout after two men, George Wood and Jake Adams, who began firing pistols while drinking at the Occidental Saloon. Constable W.C. Kelly and Deputy John Wilson, accompanied by Flatt and W.H. Kiser, entered the saloon. During the ensuing shootout Flatt killed the two outlaws, while Kiser was grazed in the temple and Wilson was wounded in the wrist.

1867- Kansas- George Custer leaves his command without permission in order to search for his wife among the forts in Kansas.

1870- Hayes City, Kansas- Wild Bill Hickok was in a saloon when seven intoxicated cavalrymen from nearby Fort Hays jumped him and held him down. One of them held a six-gun to Wild Bill's ear and pulled the trigger but the gun misfired. Wild Bill managed to regain his feet and he pulled his pistols, shooting Private Jerry Lanihan through the wrist and knee and another trooper, John Kile, who was hit in the stomach. The rest of the troopers backed off as Hickok retreated from the saloon. Lanihan survived but Kile died the next day.

1884- Dodge City, Kansas- Tom Nixon, who recently took Mysterious Dave Mather's job as assistant marshal, shoots at Mathers, claiming he was drawn upon. Nixon was released on bond.

1884- Dodge City, Kansas- Mysterious Dave Mather shoots and kills Tom Nixon, who had fired at him a few days before.

1877- Dodge City, Kansas George Hoyt rode up to Wyatt Earp, who was standing outside the Comique Theater in Dodge City, and fired at Wyatt. Hoyt was trying to earn $1000 to be paid by cattleman Tobe Driskall to anyone who killed Wyatt. Three shots missed Earp and went into the theater, causing comedian Eddie Foy to throw himself on the stage in the middle of an act. Hoyt was shot and later buried in Boot Hill on 21 August.

1874- Caldwell, Kansas- a group of horse thieves is caught by a posse of 150 men under Sheriff John Davis, of the horse thieves that were arrested on the 28th, three were hanged by vigilantes.

1874-Kansas- start of Grasshopper plague (Rocky Mountain Locust). The grasshopper invasion devastated crops in Kansas and many people lost nearly everything. Aid was sent from the East to help the people get through the hard winter. Lasted until September.

1868- Kansas- Indian raids along the Republican and Saline Rivers kill ten settlers.

1873- Ellsworth, Kansas- the Thompson brothers operated a gambling operation in the back of Brennan's Saloon. On this day Bill Thompson killed Sheriff C.B. Whitney and high-tailed it out of town as his brother, Ben Thompson, held off a mob of would be pursuers with a shotgun. Ben was later fined $25 for aiding and abetting his brother.

1871- Newton, Kansas- lawman Mike McCluskie returns to town and gets drunk at Tuttle's Saloon. He had left town on the 11th after killing his partner, William Wilson, after an argument over who would buy the drinks after an election.

1873- Linn County, Kansas- citizens near Twin Springs hang a man for killing his own wife and her two children and setting the house with the bodies inside on fire.

1873- Ellsworth, Kansas- Ed Crawford was discharged from the Ellsworth police department along with the rest of the officers on the day Sheriff C.B. Whitney was killed in a card game by a group of carousing Texans. Crawford was soon reappointed to the force, and while lounging in front of a local store on Aug. 20, 1873, saw the same Texans appear, led by Cad Pierce and Neil Cain. "Hello Hogue!" Pierce called to city marshal Ed Hogue. "I understand you have a white affidavit for me. Is that so?" The marshal tried to calm Pierce down, but there were angry words and then shots. Crawford, who was sitting with Hogue, wounded Pierce in the arm and then beat him to death with the butt of a rifle. Crawford was suspended from the police force for his action, and the Texans warned him to leave town, which he did, only to return early in November. Crawford burst in on Pierce's brother-in-law, Putnam, who was with a prostitute. The drunken ex-lawman fired at Putnam, who drew his six-shooter and killed Crawford. Putnam's friends from Texas burst into the room and fired thirteen slugs into the dead man.

1863- Lawrence Kansas- William Clark Quantrill lead a force of some 450 mounted confederate guerrillas in the famous raid the town of 2,000. Around 150-200 inhabitants were killed, 182 buildings burned and 2 banks looted and about $1.5 million worth of property was destroyed. Frank James and Cole Younger may have participated in the raid.

1877- Kansas- gunfighter George Hoyt dies of a gunshot wounds he received on July 26 in Dodge City. Wyatt Earp was one of the men firing on Hoyt and is credited with killing his first man.

1869- Hays City, Kansas- Sheriff Wild Bill Hickok shot a local tough, Bill Mulvey (or Melvin or Mulrey) started to shoot up the town. Hickok confronted the drunken ex-cavalryman, ordering him to surrender his guns and submit to arrest. Mulvey, who was with a number of equally drunken friends, shouted that he would never be arrested. He fumbled for his six-gun and Hickok shot him once. Mulvey was taken to a doctor's office where he died the next morning.

September.

1868- Little Coon Creek, Kansas- Indians attack a mail escort. Three soldiers are wounded and three Indians are killed.

1864 - Kansas- Fort Zarah was established on the banks of Walnut Creek near the crossroads of the Santa Fe Trail, the army supply route from Fort Riley, and the main Indian trail. In 1867 Fort Zarah was relocated in stone buildings two miles downstream near the Arkansas River. Fort Zarah was abandoned December 4, 1869 as the Indian problem moved southwestward.

1873- Hays City, Kansas- David Roberts shoots and kills Peter Welsh and George Summer in front of Cy Goddard's saloon.

1879- Dodge City, Kansas- A.H. Webb settles an argument with B. Martin by delivering a killing blow to Martin's head with a Winchester.

1884- Lawrence, Kansas- the Haskell Institute, which provided vocational training for Indians, is dedicated. Twenty-two Pawnee children are enrolled the first day. Within three days eight Cheyenne chiefs will enroll another 80 children.

1874- Kansas- grasshoppers are reported covering the ground, two inches deep in places.

1877- Kansas- Bill Heffridge and Joel Collins, members of Sam Bass's gang, are killed by soldiers in Grove County.

1877- Kansas- Joel Collins, co-leader of the Bass-Collins gang, was shot dead by posse men & soldiers at Buffalo Station, Kansas a week after the Big Spring train robbery. He had $10,000 on him.

1869- Hayes City, Kansas- was a wild town freight and cattle center, and it attracted some of the worst gunmen of the day. One of these was a brutish teamster named Samuel Strawhim who arrived with a half dozen teamsters on this date. He and his friends stormed into John Bitters' Beer Saloon that night and began to wreck the place. A few minutes later Sheriff Wild Bill Hickok, accompanied by Deputy Peter Lanihan, arrived at the saloon and ordered Strawhim to surrender his guns. Strawhim laughed and drew his guns. Wild Bill drew both his 1851 Navy Colts, blasting Strawhim to death. A coroner's jury later stated that the Strawhim shooting was justifiable homicide.

1877- Kansas. Six soldiers are wounded in an Indian fight at Famished Woman's Creek.

1878-Kansas- Chiefs Dull Knife and Little Wolf of the Northern Cheyenne led their people in a rebellion and flight from confinement and starvation on the reservation in Oklahoma (Indian Territory) to their home lands in Yellowstone. The trek climaxed on 27 Sep 1878, when 284 braves, women and children made their final stand on the bluffs of Ladder Creek, now Beaver Creek, just south of Scott County State Park. This encounter with the U.S. Cavalry was the last Indian battle in Kansas. The site--Squaws Den Battleground--drew its name from the pit in which the women and children were placed after helping to dig rifle pits for the warriors. The breastworks the Indians dug to withstand the attack by soldiers are still visible.

1883- Coolidge, Kansas- Lon Chambers, carried a badge and enforced the law in the Texas Panhandle throughout the late 1870s. In 1881 he helped Pat Garrett try to track down Billy the Kid and his gang. He later quit law enforcement and formed his own holdup gang. They pulled their biggest job at Coolidge on this date. Three masked men boarded a westbound train that had made a brief stop at Coolidge, one of them believed to be Chambers. They ordered engineer John Hilton to take the train out of the station, and when he was slow to comply one of the gunmen shot him through the heart. The express messenger returned the fire, which drove the robbers from the train. Chambers was eventually arrested, but was released for lack of evidence.

October.

1871- Abilene Kansas Phil Coe was mortally wounded (and died 3 days later) outside the Alamo Saloon when he fired at Marshal Hickok and missed. Wild Bill didn't miss. He also didn't miss Deputy Marshal Mike Williams (due to poor eye-sight) who accidentally got in the line of fire.

1892- Coffeyville, Kansas - trying to out do their cousins from the James Gang, the Dalton Gang try to rob two banks at the same time, the Condon Bank and the First National Bank, the gang is decimated in the process. A shootout followed which claimed the lives of eight men: Bill Powers, Bob & Gratton Dalton & Dick Broadwell died in the attempt. Only Emmett Dalton survived and spent 15 years in prison.

1878- Dodge City Kansas- Dora Hand, a saloon singer, was shot and killed as a result of a feud, possibly over Dora between Dodge City mayor James Kelly and a cowboy named James Kennedy. At 4 a.m. a juiced up Kennedy rode up and fired two .45 slugs in the direction of where he thought Kelly was sleeping. The mayor was actually in the post hospital at Ft. Dodge while Dora and friend Fannie Garretson were sleeping in the mayors bed. A posse made up of Sheriff Bat Masterson, Wyatt Earp, Charlie Bassett, Neal Brown, and Bill Tilghman caught Kennedy who was later acquitted, partly due to his remorse. Dora had one of the grandest funerals Dodge ever saw.

1859- Kansas- "Camp on Pawnee Fork" and Camp Alert, as Fort Larned was first known, was established as a military post to protect travelers and commerce and mail on the Santa Fe Trail from Indians. It also provided a more centralized point for the distribution.

1888- Kansas- White Chief enrolls at the University of Kansas and becomes the first Indian to attend college in Kansas.

1864-- Mine Creek, Kansas- Battle at Mine Creek: Although Kansas soldiers saw action in many important engagements of the Civil War, the only major battle fought in Kansas occurred at Mine Creek in Linn County. This battle involved some 25,000 men. The Union Army under Generals Curtis, Blunt, and Pleasanton defeated the Confederate Army under Generals Sterling Price and Marmaduke, ending the threat of a Confederate invasion in Kansas.

1873- Wichita, Kansas- after rebuilding his dance hall that drunken soldiers had torched a few months before, Gunman Edward T. Beard was immediately at odds with the dreaded gunman Rowdy Joe Lowe, who had built a saloon next to Beard's (winning in a race to see who could build a dance hall first). On this day, Beard, drinking heavily, accused one of his prostitutes, Jo DeMerritt, of stealing from him. DeMerritt threw a bottle at him and fled next door to Lowe's saloon. The drunken Beard followed her, staggered into Lowe's, and in the smoke-filled place mistook another prostitute, Annie Franklin, as being DeMerritt. He fired a shot which struck the woman in the stomach. Lowe then grabbed a shotgun and exchanged shots with Beard. Lowe's shot missed but Beard's bullet grazed Lowe's neck. A stray bullet struck and wounded bystander Bill Anderson who was standing at the bar. Beard fled and Lowe, as drunk as his quarry, went after him. Both men, mounted on horses and racing out of town, had a running gunfight. Lowe caught up with Beard near the river bridge and emptied his shotgun into him, then rode back to town where he turned himself in to the sheriff. Beard was found critically wounded in the arm and thigh, loaded with buckshot. He clung to life for two weeks, but through loss of blood died on Nov. 11, 1873.

November.

1870- Kansas- Bear River Bart is shot and killed near Abilene.

1891- Fort Riley, Kansas- Comanche, the only horse of Custer's 7th Cavalry to survive the 1876 Battle of Little Big Horn, dies. You can see him on display at the University of Kansas. They must have fed him well, because he's stuffed!

1886- Jetmore, Kansas- Sam Purple murders his wife and two children. He is lynched by a mob.

1866- Kansas- Fort Fletcher is renamed Fort Hayes in honor of General Alexander Hayes who died in the Battle of the Wilderness.

1875- Wichita, Kansas- a local paper praises lawman Wyatt Earp who found a drunken stranger asleep under a bridge with $500 in his pocket and as a result kept the man from being robbed.

1883- Kansas- Cash Hollister moved to Caldwell, Kansas from his native Cleveland as a thirty-one year old in 1877. Two years later, he was elected mayor after the sudden death of the incumbent In 1880, Hollister chose not to run for reelection, but three years later was appointed a deputy U.S. marshal. On Nov. 21, 1883, Hollister and Ben Wheeler tried to arrest Chet Van Meter, who was accused of beating his family and threatening others. Van Meter fired at the lawmen as they approached, but was killed by five shots in the chest.

1884- Caldwell, Kansas- Cash Hollister a deputy U.S. marshal attempted his final arrest. Bob Cross, the son of a minister, was accused of adultery after he abandoned his wife for the daughter of a local farmer. Hollister and three other lawmen went to the Cross farm in Hunnewell, Kansas. Cross' wife and sister denied he was there, but as the posse searched the house, two shots fatally wounded Hollister.

December.

1874- Muncie, Kansas- the Kansas Pacific Railroad Train was stopped west of Kansas City. The robbers leisurely took their time. It was reported that they liberated $30,000.00 in monies as well as the passengers personal items. Other reports estimated the monies were as high as $ 55,000.00. William "Bud" Mc Daniel (known friend of the James Boys) was arrested in Kansas City a short time after for the robbery. He escaped from jail and was killed shortly afterwards.

1883- Caldwell, Kansas- Marshal Henry Brown kills gambler Newt Boyce.

1872- Dodge City, Kansas- the former marshal of Newton, Bill Brooks, kills Mr. Brown of the Santa Fe Railroad in a shootout.

1900 - Wichita Kansas- Carrie Nation's 1st public smashing of a bar (Carey Hotel). She broke each and every one of the liquor bottles she could see, which means, about all of them behind the bar, for sure. Nation usually did her damage with a hatchet; calling her vandalism, hatchetation.

1872- Dodge City, Kansas- saloon keeper Matthew Sullivan is shot and killed by an unknown assailant who fired through the saloons window. Bully Brooks is a popular suspect.

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About Me

I am from the great State of Kansas, and as of 2014 I am 68 years young. I have a wife and two children and two grandchildren. I now have four sites: 1. Civil War Days & Those Surnames 2. The History of Oakland, Kansas 3. The Writings of Dennis Segelquist. 4. Kansas and It's Surnames. Come over for a visit.